Plural declension in Estonian
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HideHow to decline the words in plural?
The plural declension of the words in nominative, genitive and partitive case is discussed under each lesson separately.
However all the other 11 cases follow the same pattern and they are constructed by adding the usual endings to the genitive plural form.
A word that is declined in the plural generally consits of the following parts, which are easy to distinguish:
PARTITIVE STEM + PLURAL INDICATOR -de/-te + CASE ENDING
The following example shows how the noun vend 'brother' is declined in the singular and plural.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | vend | venna/d |
| Genitive | venna | venda/de |
| Partitive | venda | vendi |
| Illative | venna/sse | venda/de/sse |
| Inessive | venna/s | venda/de/s |
| Elative | venna/st | venda/de/st |
| Allative | venna/le | venda/de/le |
| Adessive | venna/l | venda/de/l |
| Ablative | venna/lt | venda/de/lt |
| Translative | venna/ks | venda/de/ks |
| Terminative | venna/ni | venda/de/ni |
| Essive | venna/na | venda/de/na |
| Comitative | venna/ta | venda/de/ta |
| Abessive | venna/ga | venda/de/ga |
Adjectives in the plural are declined in the same way as in the singular - they usually take the same forms as the nouns they modify. Only for the last four case forms, the adjective remains in the genitive form, whereas the noun takes the -ni, -na, -ta, -ga ending.
- Poes on ilusad (nom.) kleidid (nom.). --- There are nice dresses in the shop.
- Tal on palju ilusaid (part.) kleite (part.). --- She has a lot of nice dresses.
- Naised läksid peole ilusate (gen.) kleitidega (abe.). --- The women went to the party with nice dresses.
When two or more plural nouns are mentioned in a series, the case endings for the comitative and abessive are usually added only to the last noun (like in the singular).
- Ilma õhu ja päikseta ei saa elada. --- It's impossible to live without the air and sun.
- Ta võitles küünte ja hammastega. --- She was fighting with nails and teeth.
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